Kirby 100: The Wedding of Reed and Sue

Published Sep 8, 2017
By Tj Dietsch

Writer Robbie Thompson RSVPs for the social event of the Silver Age!

1917 to 2017: 100 years of Kirby.

Join us this month to celebrate Jack “King” Kirby’s 100th birthday by learning about the characters and stories he created that changed comics forever. To commemorate Jack’s centennial, we’ve sat down with the modern-day creators he influenced—and the decades of work he gifted us all.

Over the course of these Kirby 100 posts, we’ve made numerous references to Jack Kirby as co-architect of the Marvel Universe. These days the idea of a shared super hero universe in comics seems about as commonplace as the idea of heroes fighting villains, but that concept didn’t just sprout up out of nowhere. For years, issues would come out month after month with very little continuity between installments or references to other characters from the same publisher.

However, when Stan Lee and Jack started working together on titles like FANTASTIC FOUR, THOR, UNCANNY X-MEN and others, they didn’t just build off and reference previous stories, but also feature other heroes from even more books like Daredevil and Spider-Man. Readers of those early Marvel comics really got the sense that all of these characters lived in the same world, especially since many of them took place in New York City.

Kirby and Lee topped even themselves, though, with the publication of FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #3, which featured the highly anticipated wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm. Considering the profile of this couple, it’s easy to understand how it would take on legendary status for FF fans who came along at any time, like SPIDER-MAN/DEADPOOL writer Robbie Thompson who hopped on a few hundred issues later.

“I started reading FANTASTIC FOUR with issue #243, so I knew the Richards were married, but I was always curious to see the big day, and Kirby and Lee totally delivered on an epic Annual that brought the whole Marvel Universe together,” Thompson relays. “It exceeded my expectations and remains my favorite Marvel wedding.”

Fantastic Four Annual (1963) #3

Everyone showed up from Millie the Model to the X-Men—and those were the actual guests! Doctor Doom fueled by his hated for Richards, decided to send an army of super villains to destroy the festivities, but thanks to the assembled heroes and an appearance by The Watcher, Reed and Sue made it to the alter and exchanged I dos.

“From a practical standpoint, I think it was a great way to show the cohesiveness of the Marvel Universe and illustrate how big and connected [it] was becoming,” Thompson notes. “But from a personal standpoint, it also illuminates the key to why these characters work so well: the ‘event’ is personal. The biggest day of their lives isn’t getting their powers or another invention, or even Doom trying to spoil the whole thing; the ‘event’ is their greatest adventure yet: marriage. Seeing the hope and [positivity] in all the characters coming together to unite for Reed and Sue on a personal level is such a signature part of that book’s success and it’s executed perfectly in this Annual.”

Unfortunately, two well-intentioned attendees got turned away at the door by Nick Fury, Dum Dum Duggan, and Gabe Jones. The pair? None other than Stan and Jack themselves! Of course, that adds to the issue’s charm as the two men head off to work on the next installment! It helps that Kirby got to draw so many amazing characters in one issue while also throwing in some of his classic tech and even a collage!

“I’d rate it pretty high on the Kirby Canon, it really does have it all—and you can see Kirby pushing the form of comic storytelling in each panel, adding to the grammar of sequential storytelling and bringing each character to life in such an elegant way,” Thompson concludes.

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more throughout Kirby Month and beyond! And join the conversation on all of our social channels with the hashtag #Kirby100.

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Kirby 100: The Wasp

Published Sep 6, 2017
By Tj Dietsch

Revisit the King’s creation of the Avengers founding member!

1917 to 2017: 100 years of Kirby.

Join us this month to celebrate Jack “King” Kirby’s 100th birthday by learning about the characters and stories he created that changed comics forever. To commemorate Jack’s centennial, we’ve sat down with the modern-day creators he influenced—and the decades of work he gifted us all.

During the 1960s, female comic book characters weren’t often positioned as heroes the same way that their male counterparts were—many were relegated to roles as romantic interests, damsels in distress, or both. While Janet van Dyne has filled these roles at times, she also holds the unique distinction of being not just the first female member of the Avengers, but also one of the team’s five founding heroes. Not bad for a character that only debuted a few months before the group’s inception!

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Janet made her original appearance in June 1963 with TALES TO ASTONISH #44. The story saw Hank Pym (A.K.A. Ant-Man) first meet van Dyne when her father Vernon appealed for help with a science experiment. While Pym dismissed Vernon’s request, he did take a liking to Janet—who seemed to have a mutual interest in Hank.

Later that night, Vernon van Dyne’s experiment accidentally transported a space creature called Kosmos directly into his laboratory. After witnessing her father get knocked unconscious by the beast, Janet called Pym for help—but by the time he arrived as Ant-Man, Vernon had already died from the attack.

The two worked together in the aftermath of the accident—and Hank gave Janet shrinking powers of her own, as well as with the ability to sprout wings and fly. In an effort to avenge her father’s death, van Dyne took on the mantle of The Wasp.

Tales to Astonish (1959) #44

Now using their super hero monikers, the duo ended Kosmos’ reign of terror and fought other threats across the globe. Before long, Ant-Man and The Wasp joined Thor, Iron Man, and The Hulk to become Earth’s mightiest heroes with AVENGERS #1 in 1963.

Janet van Dyne immediately made herself known as a force to be reckoned with—even among such powerful and cosmic company. In issue #1, The Wasp demanded that Ant-Man wait for her to respond to Rick Jones and the Teen Brigade’s radio request for help—and when Hank made a crack about Janet’s makeup, she called him a “stuffy old bachelor” and answered the call.

Later in the same issue, as Ant-Man and The Wasp faced off against a rampaging Hulk, Janet risked her life to lure the Jade Giant into a trap. After fighting The Hulk—and dropping Loki into a lead-lined tank—Ant-Man, The Wasp, Iron Man, Thor, and a now-recovered Hulk convened to make their association official. Janet came up with a team name and the Avengers were born.

Earth’s mightiest heroes have become one of the most influential groups in Marvel history—and The Wasp has served as the team’s leader more than anyone, except Captain America, ever since. One of Jack Kirby’s finest creations, Janet van Dyne has proved that a female hero can be as interesting, complex, capable—and fallible—as any of her male counterparts for more than 50 years.

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more throughout Kirby Month and beyond! And join the conversation on all of our social channels with the hashtag #Kirby100.

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Kirby 100: Ka-Zar & The Savage Land

Published Sep 5, 2017
By Tj Dietsch

Explore a wild kingdom only the mind of Kirby could imagine!

1917 to 2017: 100 years of Kirby.

Join us this month to celebrate Jack “King” Kirby’s 100th birthday by learning about the characters and stories he created that changed comics forever. To commemorate Jack’s centennial, we’ve sat down with the modern-day creators he influenced—and the decades of work he gifted us all.

Back in the 1960s when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby laid down the base for the Marvel Universe, they created a number of unusual and endlessly captivating nooks and crannies to explore. In 1965’s UNCANNY X-MEN #10, readers discovered a secret place called the Savage Land that played home to dinosaurs, Neanderthals, and other forms of life including the heroic Ka-Zar and his saber-tooth tiger Zabu. Those last two came into the merry mutants’ world by way of a television broadcast showing the “Antarctic Wild Man” saving a researcher wearing only a loin cloth and accompanied by a supposedly extinct cat.

At first thinking he might be a mutant, the X-Men wanted to go check the mystery out. Professor X told them that, had he been a mutant, Cerbro would have spotted him, but then allowed them to go anyway. Upon exploring a recently created crevasse, the team traveled down through an icy tunnel that emptied into a boneyard for huge animals.

From there, the teens saw many of the wonders hidden below the ice in the Savage Land, but also several of the dangers ranging from pterodactyls to primitive warriors riding huge birds and wielding impressive weapons. Those attackers got the drop on the X-Men and made off with Marvel Girl while Ka-Zar made his first appearance alongside faithful companion Zabu!

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #10

Thanks to some misunderstood differences in customs, the strangers fought one another, but only until Maa-Gor, the Killer, popped up to murder the self-proclaimed “Lord of the Jungle.” With that confrontation over, Ka-Zar agreed to help the X-Men save Jean from the Swamp Men. Angel flew ahead to scout, but got captured himself!

Ka-Zar and company made it to the Swamp Men’s walled village just in time to help Angel and Marvel Girl fend off an attacking T-Rex, thanks in part to the small army of mastodons the jungle lord called in for reinforcements. Upon freeing the captives, Ka-Zar bid the X-Men farewell, explaining concisely that he preferred his world to the one above.

Kirby returned to the Savage Land and Ka-Zar along with Lee for the first issue of ASTONISHING TALES in 1970. The character had appeared in various places in the five years since his creation, but this marked his first real showcase, though he had to share it with the villainous Doctor Doom! With the second issue, Roy Thomas took over for Lee on the scripts. Kirby only lasted one more issue himself before making way for artists like Barry Windsor-Smith, Herb Trimpe, Gil Kane, John Buscema, and Marie Severin.

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more throughout Kirby Month and beyond! And join the conversation on all of our social channels with the hashtag #Kirby100.

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Kirby 100: Captain America

Published Sep 1, 2017
By Tj Dietsch

A trio of takes on the Sentinel of Liberty from his co-creator!

1917 to 2017: 100 years of Kirby.

Join us this month to celebrate Jack “King” Kirby’s 100th birthday by learning about the characters and stories he created that changed comics forever. To commemorate Jack’s centennial, we’ve sat down with the modern-day creators he influenced—and the decades of work he gifted us all.

During Jack Kirby’s decades-long career he certainly created a number of memorable characters, but none can match Captain America when it comes to longevity. Along with his partner Joe Simon and the talented artists who worked for them, Kirby delivered CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #1 to Timely Comics in 1941 and continued working on the series through issue #10. During that time, Kirby not only drew Steve Rogers’ origin as the Army reject who wound up becoming the symbol of all things American when given the Super Soldier Serum, he additionally introduced the likes of Bucky and The Red Skull.

As later established in AVENGERS #4, Bucky died thanks to a plot by Baron Zemo that also left Cap floating through the ocean in a block of ice. He remained there until 1965 when Kirby teamed up with Stan Lee—who also contributed to CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS—to reintroduce the Sentinel of Liberty to a new generation of readers! The thawed out Super Soldier quickly became a stalwart member of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

After bringing Steve Rogers back, Lee and Kirby decided to tell even more Cap stories, this time in the pages of TALES OF SUSPENSE, starting with #58. While some of these adventures took place in the present, others drew on some of that raw material from the first run of Cap comics and retold them for a new audience, complete with new art that showed off how Kirby’s work had evolved in that time.

TALES OF SUSPENSE gave way to CAPTAIN AMERICA #100 in 1968. Between the two books, Kirby helped introduce characters like Batroc, Doctor Faustus, Sharon Carter, The Falcon, Peggy Carter, M.O.D.O.K., and more. Kirby drew the series through issue #109, and then returned for #112, which he reportedly drew in 24 hours.

In the mid-70s, “The King” returned to the castle he helped build and did one more stint with his bravest of knights: Captain America. Kirby took over as writer-artist-editor of the title with 1976’s #193. Without missing a beat, he launched the Avenger and his partner Falcon directly into classic adventures like “Madbomb,” which dealt with the dangers of weaponized hate.

During this time, Kirby created one of Erik Larsen’s favorite moments during “The Swine,” not to mention the still-relevant Arnim Zola. Ultimately, the King’s reign on CAPTAIN AMERICA would come to a close with 1977’s issue #214, leaving behind not one or two, but three legendary runs on the character!

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more throughout Kirby Month and beyond! And join the conversation on all of our social channels with the hashtag #Kirby100.

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Kirby 100: Nick Fury

Published Aug 31, 2017
By Tj Dietsch

The war-time hero turns secret agent courtesy of Stan Lee and the King!

1917 to 2017: 100 years of Kirby.

Join us this month to celebrate Jack “King” Kirby’s 100th birthday by learning about the characters and stories he created that changed comics forever. To commemorate Jack’s centennial, we’ve sat down with the modern-day creators he influenced—and the decades of work he gifted us all.

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby changed the comic landscape with a quartet of adventurers in 1961. As the decade pushed on, so did they, creating more fantastical super folks than we can count, but in 1963 they introduced the world to a guy who would become one of the most important figures in the Marvel Universe: Nick Fury.

In the midst of the super hero resurgence, Stan and Jack decided to play to both their strengths and launch, of all things, a World War II comic. In a 2005-penned intro to the Marvel Masterworks collection of their run, Lee admitted that he considered these stories some of the best he’d ever written and Jack had ever drawn:

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos (1963) #1

“Maybe I relate to them so much because ‘King’ Kirby and I both served in World War II,” Lee wrote. “Jack was a fightin’ infantryman with the Third Army and I was attached to the Signal Corps. We were both discharged in 1945 after three years of service. And I know I don’t haveta tell you, it’s an experience you never forget.”

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS not only gave the world tough talking Fury, but also his band of misfits, including Dum Dum Duggan, Gabriel Jones, Dino Manelli, Izzy Cohen, Junior Juniper, and Rebel Ralston. Lee said that he took pride in the diversity of the cast, which accurately reflected their experiences during the war.

Of course, Nick Fury wouldn’t stay in the 40s forever. In FANTASTIC FOUR #21, he made his first appearance in the modern day, meeting up with Reed Richards who had actually appeared as a pre-Mr. Fantastic scientist in SGT. FURY #3. Not yet sporting his now-iconic eye patch, Fury worked on a case for the CIA at the time. In the next two years, Nick lost an eye and became the head of the Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law Enforcement Division—or more simply S.H.I.E.L.D.—as seen in 1965’s STRANGE TALES #135.

Strange Tales (1951) #135

Beyond evolving Fury into Marvel’s number one spy—and also its first and last line of defense against any number of threats—Kirby and Lee also introduced concepts like The Helicarrier, Hydra, Life Model Decoys, Zodiac, the ESP Division, and A.I.M., among many others. Just try and think of a long-running Marvel comic that hasn’t featured one of those elements—it’s no small task!

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more throughout Kirby Month and beyond! And join the conversation on all of our social channels with the hashtag #Kirby100.

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The History of Kirby: 1965

Published Aug 30, 2017
By Jim Beard

Two of the Fantastic Four tie the knot, Hulk fights Thor, plus more!

In celebration of Jack “King” Kirby’s 100th birthday, we’re reviewing the man’s legendary creations with a year-by-year examination of his unparalleled career at Marvel Comics. Read on and witness the work that made him comic book royalty.

Even a casual Marvel reader in 1965 might’ve believed that Jack Kirby worked on every single issue of every single title the House of Ideas published that year. The truth of it stands as something less than that, but Marvel editor and writer Stan Lee knew a good thing and ensured Jack’s presence across the line in varied ways, and with a concentration where the Kirby touch would bring comic book gold.

First and foremost, Lee and Kirby’s flagship book remained Jack’s true focus at the midpoint of the 1960s. In FANTASTIC FOUR #32, after a battle with the strange android Dragon Man, Reed Richards received the answer he’d hoped for from his marriage proposal to Sue Storm, setting up one of the true monumental moments in comic history: the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and The Invisible Girl in FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #3 that summer.

Jack’s penciling duties for 1965 also extended into Captain America’s solo series in TALES OF SUSPENSE. For the first part of the year he produced covers and simple layouts for others to follow, but for his and Stan’s powerful team-up between Cap and Nick Fury in TALES OF SUSPENSE #78, he provided full interior art. From there, the duo planted dynamite under Cap’s world with the return of The Red Skull in TALES OF SUSPENSE #79, and the amazing Cosmic Cube saga beginning in TALES OF SUSPENSE #80.

Speaking of Nick Fury, Jack’s visions of technological wonders expanded exponentially when he and Stan promoted the sergeant into their newest concept, S.H.I.E.L.D., in the landmark STRANGE TALES #135. For the next several issues of the mag, Jack would do layouts and covers, helping guide his former World War II star into the Swingin’ Sixties.

Jack relinquished penciling chores on AVENGERS in 1965, but also helped out with layouts and covers, same as with SGT. FURY and TALES TO ASTONISH. Over in UNCANNY X-MEN he worked to illustrate the memorable meeting of the young mutants and the Avengers to fruition in X-MEN #9, and introduce the savage Ka-Zar in X-MEN #10.

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more throughout Kirby Month and beyond! And join the conversation on all of our social channels with the hashtag #Kirby100.

Kirby 100: Amazing Adventures

Published Aug 30, 2017
By Tj Dietsch

Marvel at the majesty of Kirby-drawn monsters!

1917 to 2017: 100 years of Kirby.

Join us this month to celebrate Jack “King” Kirby’s 100th birthday by learning about the characters and stories he created that changed comics forever. To commemorate Jack’s centennial, we’ve sat down with the modern-day creators he influenced—and the decades of work he gifted us all.

Plenty of fans rightly associate Jack Kirby’s name with costumed individuals punching each other so hard that the very air around them crackles with energy, but he also worked in a variety of other genres. Like many artists in the 50s and 60s, he contributed to anthology comics that featured huge monsters, menacing aliens, and other threats previously unknown to mortal man!

One of those books, AMAZING ADVENTURES, ran for just six issues in 1961 but nicely showcased the abilities of Kirby and Stan Lee to create thrilling stories in just a few pages. The first tale of the inaugural issue followed a man named Paul Ramsay on trial for the murder of his friend. He refused to defend himself because of Torr, an alien who landed and intended to turn Earth into a colony for his home planet.

Using his immense mental powers, Torr switched bodies with Paul’s scientist colleague in an effort to get a lay of the land. Along the way, he used hypnosis-induction to make people see all kinds of crazy things including a car monster! To save humanity from enslavement, Ramsay shot his friend, but knew the court would never believe the story. Luckily for him, a surprise witness led to an immediate mistrial.

Amazing Adventures (1961) #1

After a story by another legendary comic artist, Steve Ditko, Lee and Kirby worked together to introduce Dr. Droom, a kind of mystic super hero who would go on to appear in all six issues of AMAZING ADVENTURES. Droom answered the call of a Tibetan Lama requesting a doctor. Upon arrival, he had to forsake his medical bag, cross hot coals, and face a half-gorilla, half-lion creature before meeting the Lama who passed his powers along to the newcomer. In many ways, Droom would pave the way not just for fellow occult hero Doctor Strange, but also lay down a version of his origins which revolved around traveling to a temple in the mountains to gain mystical abilities.

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Kirby 100: Matthew Rosenberg

Published Aug 29, 2017
By Tj Dietsch

The Secret Warriors scribe salutes the work ethic of his artistic hero!

1917 to 2017: 100 years of Kirby.

Join us this month to celebrate Jack “King” Kirby’s 100th birthday by learning about the characters and stories he created that changed comics forever. To commemorate Jack’s centennial, we’ve sat down with the modern-day creators he influenced—and the decades of work he gifted us all.

SECRET WARRIORS, KINGPIN, ROCKET RACCOON, and upcoming PUNISHER writer Matthew Rosenberg understands one key element about Jack Kirby’s influence on the Marvel Universe: it’s everywhere. He’s worked with characters that “The King” actually had a hand in creating along with plenty of others who came along after, but, to him, remain part of the same whole.

We talked with Rosenberg about working off of Kirby’s original blueprints, adding to the mythos he helped start, and how he liked Jack’s work before he ever met “The King.”

Marvel.com: How did you come to Kirby’s stuff? Was it always there for you or something you discovered the more you got into comics?

Matthew Rosenberg: I learned to read by stealing my brother’s [UNCANNY X-MEN] and FANTASTIC FOUR comics. I remember not quite knowing what was going on and loving every second of it. Some of that was the work of [X-MEN writer Chris] Claremont, [artist Dave] Cockrum, [artist John] Byrne, and others, but I think what attracted me to it at such a young age was the foundations laid by Jack Kirby. And when I got old enough to buy my own books, the ones I wanted were always the Marvel Masterworks of those early Jack Kirby books. It took me a few years to realize that was Jack Kirby that I was being drawn to, but part of my young brain knew it even if I wasn’t processing it.

Marvel.com: Do you remember what it was about his work that struck you at that time?

Matthew Rosenberg: There is just something so alien and yet so accessible about his work. It draws you in because you’ve never seen anything like it before, and yet it feels like it’s something you’ve always wanted. The human aspect: the family, the outsiders, the angry rebel, the lost soul—all of these archetypal characters felt familiar. You saw a piece of yourself in Johnny Storm, Jean Grey, T’Challa or even Norrin Radd, Victor Von Doom, or Harvey Elder. But then that piece of you was whisked away to worlds beyond your wildest imagination. It’s mind blowing for me now to look at Kirby’s work and try to process it. I can’t even imagine what it was like at the time.

Marvel.com: Kingpin and Rocket weren’t created by Jack, but they seem to play in the worlds he helped create. How does it feel to be adding to that lineage?

Matthew Rosenberg: Oh, everything we touch in the Marvel Universe has Jack Kirby’s DNA built into it, for sure. That sense of the impossible and fantastical; that desire to make things no one has ever seen before, make everything larger than life, it’s built into all of this. And yes, Rocket is the creation of Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen, and Kingpin is the creation of Stan Lee and John Romita, but it’s hard not to see how easily they fit into the universe of Kirby. And that’s the amazing thing about all of it. It’s such a huge, crazy universe that there is room for a corrupt businessman and a talking space raccoon to meet, and it doesn’t feel weird.

Marvel.com: Jack’s characters are all over SECRET WARRIORS ranging from Karnak and Devil Dinosaur to groups like the X-Men, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Hydra. How does it feel to be playing in that sandbox with those toys?

Matthew Rosenberg: I’ve said it before but the thing I love about SECRET WARRIORS is how it feels like we are bridging gaps between all these great eras of the Marvel Universe. Karnak and S.H.I.E.L.D. were created by Jack Kirby in the 60s; Devil Dinosaur in the 70s. But then I get to throw in lots of 80s and 90s X-Men, Deadpool, and whatnot. And finally the rest of our cast—Quake, Ms. Marvel, Inferno, and Moon Girl—they’re all characters who were made by people still working at Marvel now. And that for me is an amazing thing.

The Marvel Universe is so fun because it always moves forward; new stories, new characters, new creators. But it never forgets its roots. So in SECRET WARRIORS we get to pay tribute to every generation of Marvel. We are looking toward the future but never forgetting our past.

Marvel.com: Kirby’s known for being this huge fount of creative energy. Has that inspired you your own comic-making career?

Matthew Rosenberg: Of course! I think it takes different shapes at different times. Sometimes when a story seems too tough to figure out or a character feels elusive, I will grab some old X-MEN or BLACK PANTHER comics and just disappear into that world for a little bit. It reinvigorates my imagination in a huge way. It reminds me what I’m trying to do.

But also the sheer amount of work that Jack Kirby created, not just the unbelievable quality, but the volume of it all. If that doesn’t keep younger comic creators up at night I don’t know what will. I will be lucky to come anywhere near putting out the amount of comic pages that he did. It’s something to be inspired and terrified by. At 3 AM I look up and see those books on my shelf and I know I can write for another few hours.

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more throughout Kirby Month and beyond! And join the conversation on all of our social channels with the hashtag #Kirby100.

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Kirby 100: HIM!

Published Aug 28, 2017
By Tj Dietsch

Carlos Pacheco provides a look back at a classic Kirby character intro!

1917 to 2017: 100 years of Kirby.

Join us this month to celebrate Jack “King” Kirby’s 100th birthday by learning about the characters and stories he created that changed comics forever. To commemorate Jack’s centennial, we’ve sat down with the modern-day creators he influenced—and the decades of work he gifted us all.

When it came to tackling big ideas, Jack Kirby never shied away. He created comics that dealt with everything from Nazis and racism to the origins of reality and how the divine interact with man. CABLE artist Carlos Pacheco has always appreciated the way “The King” explored these concepts.

“For my favorite Marvel Kirby issues, I’m afraid that I won’t be very original saying that the issues that go from FANTASTIC FOUR #44 [to] #67 contain what Marvel comics always was: a creative explosion,” shares Pacheco. “Inhumans, Black Panther, Galactus, Silver Surfer and Doctor Doom, the Negative Zone, Him, and the Hive. What [writer] Stan [Lee] and Jack did in those is impossible to repeat. Anyway I’m very fond of the last two issues, #66 and #67”

In FANTASTIC FOUR #66 and #67, from 1967, Alicia Masters disappears and her boyfriend, the ever-loving, blue-eyed Thing, wants to find her, while his teammates think she might have simply left without saying anything. In reality, she’d been taken to the Citadel of Science where the lab’s members had created a supposedly perfect human with the power to blind anyone who came near. They planned on sending Masters to their creation so she could sculpt “HIM” and give them an idea of what they’d made.

Fantastic Four (1961) #66

“Kirby mythology goes beyond men and supermen, he established a relationship between men and gods—and demons,” Pacheco explains. “Men play to be gods creating a superior form of life as it happens in those particular FANTASTIC FOUR issues; a being that cannot be understood by human perception and we need a blind woman to understand it, an intermediary between this god and the rest of humans—even the ones that create him—to perceive what is beyond our knowledge. To translate the 4th dimension to elements of the 3D one. I don’t remember the first time that such a secondary character gets so relevant role in a story.”

To that point, Alicia remained nearby when the cocoon containing HIM opened, releasing the wildly powerful individual onto the world. Before zapping the Citadel of Science away, HIM proclaimed, “This planet of humans is not for me—not yet—not till another millennium has passed!” Eventually the being took on the name Adam Warlock and traveled the spaceways as a messianic figure, spreading his influence across the cosmos.

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more throughout Kirby Month and beyond! And join the conversation on all of our social channels with the hashtag #Kirby100.

Kirby 100: The Incredible Hulk

The story of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s early days with the Jade Giant!

Join us this month to celebrate Jack “King” Kirby’s 100th birthday by learning about the characters and stories he created to change comics forever. To commemorate Jack’s centennial, we’ve sat down with the modern-day creators he influenced—and the decades of work he gifted us all.

Jack Kirby was one of the primary architects of the Marvel Universe, and his list of contributions to comics is long enough to span even our galaxy. And one of the crown jewels of his work was his collaboration with Stan Lee to craft one of the most complex Marvel characters in existence: The Hulk.

In 1962, Jack and Stan launched a character that seemed in line with the early monsters of TALES TO ASTONISH and the pre-Thor JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY, though this new creation turned out to be so much more. This introduction saw brilliant scientist Bruce Banner transform into a comic book legend when he threw caution to the wind and ran onto an active gamma bomb test site to save a wayward young man named Rick Jones.

INCREDIBLE HULK #1 featured Dr. Banner under pressure from military leader Thunderbolt Ross, who wanted to hurry a gamma bomb into its trial period. Meanwhile, Banner’s fellow scientist Igor pressed the Doctor on the secrets behind the G-bomb’s creation. Fueled by these tensions—and a bit of his own hubris—Banner agreed to an early test.

Incredible Hulk (1962) #1

Though on the day, as the bomb was being prepared for launch, Rick Jones—a local teenager—unknowingly drove his car toward the target zone. Banner, having spotted Jones, requested that Igor hold the operation so that the young man could be removed from danger. Ignoring the Doctor’s plea, Igor went ahead with the experiment as planned.

Banner managed to reach Jones before detonation, throwing the young man into a ditch for safety. Banner himself, however, got caught in the blast. He survived, though he and Jones were placed in a makeshift jail cell for breaching military regulations. Hours later, the ticking sound of a Geiger counter triggered something within the Doctor and, bursting from his human form, Banner morphed into a gray goliath known as The Hulk. Exploding from their chamber, The Hulk and Jones escaped. Turns out, the gamma rays had quite a lasting effect.

By the next issue, Bruce Banner began turning green during his now-regular transformation—and an icon was born. The Hulk faced off against the alien Toad Men, Russian spies, The Ringmaster, Mongu, Tyrannus, and other foes not quite fit to fight one of the strongest Marvel characters around.

Though this initial series only lasted six issues—with Kirby drawing the first five and Steve Ditko handling the last—the Jade Giant leapt around the Universe, appearing in FANTASTIC FOUR and becoming a founding Avenger before finding a new home in TALES TO ASTONISH. The Hulk went on to anchor the title for over 60 stories, with Kirby returning to pencil issues #68-87.

Bruce Banner and The Hulk have continued on with decades of adventures, trials, and tribulations since, but all of his stories look back to the beginning—the character and concept established by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more throughout Kirby Month and beyond! And join the conversation on all of our social channels with the hashtag #Kirby100.